I'm playing archeage atm, on and off.
if anyone is thinking about playing for the crafting, I'd strongly advise getting in on head start and claiming farm space in a good area (temperate, non pvp zone).
I'm looking at you leo....
almost all crafting revolves around farming (a farm, with crops/livestock etc). without a good location, your F*ed in the A*.
and sadly, all the good spots will be gone by the end of headstart (probably 6-12 hrs after the start of headstart).

the game feels to me like a cross between EVE and Aion.
its open world pvp, faction on same faction, faction on other faction.
there are safe zones (no pvp) contested zones with time dependant fluctuations in threat level, and all in full time pvp zones.
(EVE high sec, low sec, nul sec)

level progression is simple, straight forward and not a grind, the game begins at level cap, L1-50 is simply part B of the tutorial.
pvp depends on skill choices, player skill and gear (and lag!!! choose skills according to your lag, not off the shelf yanky posted forum builds)
gear is looted and crafted, the looted/quest reward gear is absolute shit compared to crafted gear.
crafting good gear is grindy, high level gear is Aion craft grindy (read very grindy, huge time/money sink) but extremely profitable/rewarding.

I've given this a flog that last two beta weekends, its been surprisingly interesting, although it could be still oooh shiny new aspect.

Labour points seem to be the obvious grind(of just being logged in) which looks like it less of an issues with a sub. Would be a game to leave running in background any time you are doing something else on the computer. Assuming you want to participate in crafting.

Haven't looks at the pvp aspect yet though, well sorry I did have one. Was doing a trade run, arrive at seller, crap not enough labour to sell, so I decide to have lunch.
- Come back to see my character on a boat with 4 of the opposite faction dancing around me. Apparently they came right into a major city and grapple me on their boat, took me to sea to have their wicked ways with me. I was back in time to just visit my death, oh my afk flag may have cleared.
- Quite impressed except loosing a traded pack who ingredients took some 48 hours to collect. Although I still got a 20% cut of the sale when they sold it off.